This last Sunday was such a beautiful and picture perfect day, compared to the weeks of oppressive heat, so I took a nice long walk around downtown Mt. Clemens and snapped a few pics of the downtown.
Emerald Theater, which is now closed down
Heads Up head shop window reflection
the top of Macomb County Admin high rise building
Macomb County Admin building
Riverside Drive
Scale size replica of canon
Firefighter memorial
Electric car charging station
the photographer's reflection caught in door window
Old deserted buildings
The Bank nightclub, which is closed down, Admin building in background
Lingering classic cars from the classic car show the day before
New and old
War on Terror!
Clinton River
Mt Clemens from 4th floor parking garage stairwell
I took a walk around downtown Mt. Clemens this morning on my way to the library. It was a very warm and muggy day and I was glad I made this walk in the early morning instead of waiting til later. One thing I noticed today with all the people I saw is that everyone seems to be in a trance. No one was smiling or even seemed happy at all. Is life really this miserable for so many people? At least they have a lovely little town to live in. In the near future I hope to take a much longer photo walk around Mt. Clemens, including some of the very quaint residential areas too. All these pictures were taken with a little Sony Cybershot "point and shoot" camera, which does just that. I hold it up and press the button and that is all I do. No messing with settings such as F-Stops, aperture, ISO, color temperature, exposure or shutter speed to worry about. I do miss my big, heavy Nikon D90 that really served me well for almost 4 years, but I don't miss lugging such a beast around whenever I wanted to take pictures. So it's a give and take, much like life in general. It seems everything we do has that aspect to it and if you don't think so, then you probably aren't fully experiencing your life. Not that I am fully experiencing it, don't get me wrong. This is just my observation and nothing more. Well, enjoy these pics of this lovely little town. I briefly thought about embedding the Chicago song, Saturday in the Park, but that would be a slight cheese overload. There's already enough cheese in this blog post and just in my life in general, so...instead here is Bush "Prizefighter" from the great album "The Science of Things". This is one of my favorite songs off this album. Just to avoid confusion, this band has nothing to do with either of our former Presidents!
One of the Administration buildings in Mt. Clemens from the River Park
For those who have been following my personal and health progress, here's a little update. I've been out of the hospital for 6 days and have made huge progress. For the first few days I spent most of my time sleeping. The first day I slept for 20 hours solid, then each day the sleep progressively tapered off to where now I'm sleeping a little more than my normal 8 hours, but it's averaging only about 11 hours now...with an occasional nap mixed in still. I've also been walking every day...or actually at night since it's cooler and I just enjoy being outside at night. Besides being cooler and yes it's bloody hot in Michigan in the Summer. Today was 97 degrees and it was 90 degrees inside, with no a/c... cause who needs a/c in Michigan? LOL. The first few days I was walking for about 15 minutes each night but now the last few nights have been walking about an hour. I've really enjoyed these walks too. It's just me, my iPod and good tunes. In case you haven't gathered by now, music is more important to me than food... well usually and most of the time it is. If I had to choose between music and bean burritos or CHEESE, it's hard to say.
Boy I'm glad I'm only a vegetarian and not vegan cause I love cheese so much. I did try being a vegan for a few years and was actually probably healthier than ever during that time, but I craved cheese so much. Eventually, the cravings for cheese is what made me step down from the vegan platform and just be a normal everyday, lacto/ovo vegetarian. But it was so ironic during that period that I was vegan, cause I smoked cigarettes during that period. Yeah what an oxymoron and what a moron I can actually be at times. I'm like that Green Day song, Walking Contradiction... or should it be Beautiful Disaster by 311? LOL.
But hey, I was initially doing it for the animals and not so much for the health reasons. The health reasons eventually became part of it too, but the very reason I became a vegetarian back in 1997 was because of the realizations that the chicken sandwich I was eating, and the hamburgers that I used to enjoy were made from real live animals, who had feelings, emotions and actual thought processes, just like you, me and all other humans. It was the realization that we are animals too and I sure the hell wouldn't appreciate if someone rounded me up against my will, separating me from my family, through me in a cage, tortured me, then brutally killed me, just because they liked the way I taste. To me, this is just absolutely insane! However, I will not ever judge anyone who still eats meat, because I ate meat for 27 years and had virtually no guilt or total realization of what I was doing. It's easy to disassociate the meat we eat from the animals they really come from when we are programmed from birth to eat it and by the time the meat reaches our plate, all the symbols such as the head and other body parts are removed and it is nicely wrapped in a package to make it look like nice and innocent food. I also really don't have much of a problem with other people around me eating meat because since I'm human, I'm sure there still other are things that I do which some people may object too as well, for whatever reason. But just don't force me to eat your carcass and I won't force you to eat my bean curd, otherwise known as tofu. I often hear people say how gross tofu sees to them. Well, I don't really see what is so appealing about bloody animal carcass either.
And since I used to smoke cigarettes and not only smoke them, but hold the smoke in like it was a really wonderful tonic, combined with the asthma that I was born with, I had the collapsed lungs and I believe I paid the price for this, with the recent hospitalization, 4 chest tubes and the most recent and very painful surgery. I will never smoke another cigarette or anything else. It just isn't worth it. So because of these experiences, I'm more dedicated than ever to really being healthy, which is one reason why I've been walking. I would jog or run, but with my asthma, I've never been able to do that very well and I've learned to accept it. But walking is something that works really well for me, even after these Pneumothoraces, I'm able to walk, which makes me happy because I don't want to be a lazy couch potato. Life is too short and wonderful to resort to such tactics.
I also appreciate everyone who had left me nice, sincere comments and emails with best wishes and warm greetings too. Just for the record, I no longer smoke cigarettes or anything at all.
I've always liked this song a lot and of course this video just takes me back to the era when MTV played music, which was such a novel concept. Good thing we at least have YouTube so we can be our own music television. Maybe it's just evolution, but I still miss it. Here's Simple Minds "Alive and Kicking".
I spent some time with nature and the skeeters today out by the river and snapped a few pictures too. Of course I was also listening to my iPod. Today's music was the Rush "Snakes and Arrows" album, which is a newer one of theirs.
A beautiful song that I really enjoyed was "Faithless". Here's the lyrics...
I've got my own moral compass to steer by
A guiding star beats a spirit in the sky
And all the preaching voices -
Empty vessels ring so loud
As they move among the crowd
Fools and thieves are well disguised
In the temple and market place
Like a stone in the river
Against the floods of spring
I will quietly resist
Like the willows in the wind
Or the cliffs along the ocean
I will quietly resist
I don't have faith in faith
I don't believe in belief
You can call me faithless
I still cling to hope
And I believe in love
And that's faith enough for me
I've got my own spirit level for balance
To tell if my choice is leaning up or down
And all the shouting voices
Try to throw me off my course
Some by sermon, some by force
Fools and thieves are dangerous
In the temple and market place
Like a forest bows to winter
Beneath the deep white silence
I will quietly resist
Like a flower in the desert
That only blooms at night
I will quietly resist
Here are a few pics that I took while listening to this deep and powerful album, which made a perfect soundtrack today.
